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In its Relations to the 



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THE 



UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



IN ITS RELATIONS TO THE 



STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, 



BY 

HOX. SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER. 



reprinted from 
"The Pennsylvania Magazine op History and Biography.' 



PHILADELPHIA: 

FEINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

18 91. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA IN ITS 

RELATIONS TO THE STATE OF 

PENNSYLVANIA.' 



The settlement of Pennsylvania being due to the unrest 
of the members of a religious sect whose advanced thought 
brought them into conflict with existing conditions in Eng- 
land, and the moral and mental breadth of its founder 
having led him to offer it as a home, not only for those of 
his own way of thinking, but for all in that island and upon 
A the Continent who had in vain wrestled against intolerance, 

^ it was but natural that his province should attract more men 
of learning than other colonies whose promoters were simply 
seeking for profit, or were bent upon the enforcement of 
illiberal policies. Therefore it came about that among the 
early colonists of Pennsylvania were an unusual number of 
men of scholarly attainments, some of whom had been 
doughty champions upon one side or the other in the po- 
lemical warfare then being everywhere waged, a struggle 
necessary for, and preparatory to, the establishment of the 
principle that humanity is capable of governing itself. 
Penn, the founder of a successful State and a practical 
legislator whose work has stood the test of time, as well 
as the most conspicuous figure among the colonizers of 
America, was a student of Oxford University and a profuse- 
writer of books of verse, travel, doctrine, and controversy, 
which made a strong impress upon the thought of his time. 

^ In the preparation of this paper I have used freely Dr. Still^'s 
" Memoir of William Smith" and Wickersham's " History of Education 
in Pennsylvania," and I am indebted to Mr. F. D. Stone for calling my 
attention to the interesting fact that the Constitution of 1776 provided 
expressly for university education. 

a 



4 University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State. 

James Logan devoted the leisure left to him after attending 
to the interests of the proprietor to the translation from the 
Latin of the Cato Major and the Moral Distichs, and he 
collected a library of rare books which was then unrivalled 
upon this side of the Atlantic, and even now would be con- 
sidered extraordinary. David Lloyd, a lawyer, ready and 
pertinacious in the discussion of all questions affecting the 
polity of the province, was equally skilful in the drafting 
of acts of Assembly and the compilation of the laws. 
George Keith, trained in the schools of Edinburgh, was 
the author of numerous treatises upon theology, and, to- 
gether with Penn and Robert Barclay, of Ury, defended 
the Quaker doctrines against the assaults of the learned 
divines of the European churches. Francis Daniel Pas- 
torius, lawyer, linguist, and philosopher, proud of his pedi- 
gree, and fresh from the public discussion of abstruse ques- 
tions of ethics and government upon the university platforms 
of the Continent, signalized his arrival at Germantown by the 
preparation and publication, in 1690, of his " Four Trea- 
tises," and left for future generations a bibliography in 
manuscript of the volumes in his library. Ludwig, Count 
Zinzendorf, of noble lineage and influential surroundings, 
came with the Moravians, whose leader he was, to the hills 
of the Lehigh, but was not prevented by the practical 
duties of looking after the welfare of his flock from writing 
numerous collections of hymns, sermons, and addresses. 
Christopher Taylor, familiar with the Latin, Greek, and 
Hebrew languages, of which he had prepared and published 
a text-book, had long been the head of a school at Edmon- 
ton in Essex. l!^ot only were there many such individual 
instances of more than ordinary learning, but the sects from 
w^hich the early population of Pennsylvania was mainly 
drawn, though they regarded the amusements and adorn- 
ments of life as frivolities by means of which Satan was 
enabled to lead souls astray, were, nevertheless, people of 
great intellectual activity, finding prolific expression abroad 
in a flood of publications, and it was not surprising that 
soon the printing-houses of the Bradfords, Keimer, Sower, 



University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State. 5 

Ephrata, Franklin, and Bell, the most productive in the 
colonies, sprang up here to supply their mental needs. A 
community with such examples before them, and permeated 
with such influences, could not long remain without an in- 
stitution giving the opportunities for the higher education 
of youth. The frame of government announced by Penn 
as early as April 25, 1682, provided that the " Governor 
and Provincial council shall erect and order all publick 
schools and encourage and reward the authors of useful 
sciences and laudable inventions," and directed the council 
to form a " committee of manners, education, and arts, 
that all wicked and scandalous living may be prevented, and 
that youth may be successively trained up in virtue and 
useful knowledge and arts." At the meeting of the coun- 
cil on the 17th of Eleventh Month, 1683, a " school of arts 
and sciences" was proposed, and in 1689 the "William Penn 
Charter School, still in existence and doing most valuable 
work, was formally opened. Following the suggestion of 
the petition of Anthony Morris, Samuel Carpenter, Edward 
Shippen, David Lloyd, and others, the Assembly, in its 
charter granted in 1711, provided for the instruction of 
*' poor children" in " reading, work, languages, arts, and 
sciences." This school, in its successful operation, was the 
forerunner of the University of Pennsylvania, and the 
later institution had, like its predecessor, its origin in that 
spirit of broad philanthropy, regardful of the welfare of the 
lowly, which has ever been characteristic of Philadelphia, 
and has resulted in the establishment of so many of her 
public institutions. 

In 1740 a number of citizens of different religious de- 
nominations united in raising subscriptions for the purpose 
of erecting a large building to be used as a charity school 
for the instruction of poor children gratis in useful litera- 
ture and the Christian religion, and also as a place of public 
worship. In addition to the establishment of the school, 
they had in view the special object of providing a conven- 
ient house in which George Whitefield could preach when- 
ever he came to Philadelphia. The lot was purchased on 



6 University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State. 

the 15th of September of that year and the building was 
erected. Subsequently the design was enlarged to include 
the idea of an academy, and on the 1st of February, 1749, 
the lot and buildings were conveyed to James Logan and 
twenty-three other trustees, upon the trust that they should 
keep a house or place of worship for the use of such preacher 
as they should judge qualified, and particularly for the use of 
Whitefield, and a free school for the instructing, teaching, 
and education of poor children, and should have power to 
found an " academy, college, or other seminary of learning 
for instructing youth in the languages, arts, and sciences." 
The same year Benjamin Franklin, ever quick to catch in- 
spiration from the events occurring around him, published 
his " Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Penn- 
sylvania." He alleges in his autobiography that the foun- 
dation of the academy was due to the publication of this 
paper and his own subsequent personal efforts. He says, 
^' This I distributed among the principal inhabitants gratis ; 
and as soon as I could suppose their minds prepared by the 
perusal of it I set on foot a subscription for opening and sup- 
porting an academy — avoiding as much as I could, according 
to my usual rule, the presenting myself to the publick as 
the author of any scheme for their benefit." The question 
may be raised whether this account, written many years 
later, is quite accurate. Dr. Caspar Wistar, a contemporary, 
and himself long identified with the work and fame of the 
University, says, in his " Eulogium on William Shippen," 
p. 21, while speaking of the services of Phineas Bond, " In 
conjunction with the much respected Thomas Hopkinson, 
he originated the scheme of the college now the University 
of Pennsylvania." The trustees, among whom Thomas 
Hopkinson, Tench Francis, and Richard Peters, with 
Franklin, appear to have been particularly active and efii- 
cient, secured among themselves and their friends an en- 
dowment for the academy amounting to eight hundred 
pounds a year for ^yq years, and the city gave an additional 
sum of one hundred pounds a year for five years, and two 
hundred pounds in cash. 



Univei^sity of Pennsylvania in its Belations to the State. 7 

The institution thus established was incorporated by 
Thomas and Richard Penn, proprietors and governors of 
the province, on the 13th of July, 1753, under the name of 
"" The Trustees of the Academy and Charitable School in 
the Province of Pennsylvania." The charter sets out, that 
it having been represented by the trustees named that for 
establishing an academy " as well to instruct youth for 
reward as poor children whose indigent and helpless circum- 
stances demand the charity of the opulent," several benev- 
olent persons have paid subscriptions expended in the pur- 
chase of lands and a building commodious for maintaining 
an academy " as well for the instruction of poor children as 
others whose circumstances have enabled them to pay for 
their learning," and that favoring such useful and charitable 
designs, the trustees are given power to purchase lands, to 
receive any sum of money or goods "therewith to erect, 
set up, maintain, and support an academy or any other 
kind of seminary of learning in any place within the said 
province of Pennsylvania where they shall judge the same 
to be most necessary and convenient for the instruction, 
improvement, and education of youth in any kind of liter- 
ature, erudition, arts, and sciences which they shall think 
proper to be taught;" to sue and be sued, and to have a 
seal, and to make ordinances and statutes for their govern- 
ment. A confirmatory charter w^as granted by the same 
proprietaries, dated June 16, 1755, which changed the 
name to that of " The Trustees of the College, Academy, 
and Charitable School of the Province of Pennsylvania," 
and limited the power to hold lands to an amount not ex- 
ceeding ^ve thousand pounds sterling in yearly value ; and 
gave power to confer degrees and to appoint a provost, vice- 
provost, and professors. It is thus seen that the plan of the 
charitable school which originated in 1740 is not only main- 
tained in the deed of 1749 and in both of the charters, but 
is made an essential and conspicuous feature of the design. 
It is of importance to call particular attention to this fact, 
because in all printed accounts of the University heretofore 
its origin has been assigned to the efforts of 1749, though 



8 University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State, 

the movement really began with the subscription purchase 
of land and erection of a building for a charitable school 
nine years before, and the institution is entitled to claim 
1740 as the date of its birth, and philanthropy as its primary 
object.^ 

By the confirmatory charter of 1755, the Kev. William 
Smith, M.A., was, at the request of the trustees, appointed 
the first provost. He was a native of Aberdeen in Scotland, 
and was graduated from the University there, became a 
clergyman of the Church of England, and coming first to 
ISTew York and subsequently to Philadelphia, where an ar- 
ticle written by him upon " The College of Mirania" had 
made a favorable impression, he was selected to take charge 
of the college and academy in 1754. To his intelligence, 
energy, and activity in its behalf its immediate and great 
success was mainly due. He submitted a plan of education, 
adopted and carried into effect in 1756, more comprehensive, 
as Dr. Stille tells us, than any other then in existence in 
the American colonies.^ When in England, in 1759, he se- 
cured from Thomas Penn a deed conveying for the benefit 
of the college one-fourth of the Manor of Perkasie, in 
Bucks County, consisting of about two thousand ^ve hun- 
dred acres of land, and finding it in debt, he went again 
abroad, in 1762, and in two years, by indomitable exertion, 
secured, notwithstanding the opposition of Dr. Franklin, 
who " took uncommon pains to misrepresent our academy," 
the very large sum of £6921 7s. 6d. Of this amount, Thomas 
Penn, the chief patron of the college, whose gifts for the 
purpose during his life equalled £4500, contributed £500, 
the king £200, and there were over eleven thousand other 
contributors. In those days the pursuits of men were not 
so much differentiated as they have since become, and, as 

^ "There is also an Academy, or College, originally built for a Taber- 
nacle by Mr. Whitefield." — Burnaby, p. 60. 

' Eev. Andrew Burnaby, D.D., says, in his *' Travels through North 
America in 1760," " This last institution is erected upon an admirable 
plan, and is by far the best school of learning throughout America." — Third 
edition, p. 66. 



University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State, 9 

might have been expected from one with the acquirements 
and mental activities of Dr. Smith, his voice was heard and 
his hand was felt in all of the affairs of the province. As 
a clergyman, he preached fast-day sermons ; as an orator, 
he delivered addresses upon public occasions ; he made in- 
vestigations in astronomy and other sciences, edited a mag- 
azine, and, moreover, he was a speculator in lands, and an 
active politician. He was regarded as the exponent of the 
views of the college and the custodian of its interests, and 
while it was benefited by his exertions, it also suffered 
through the antagonisms he aroused. A churchman and a 
friend of the proprietors, he cordially disliked and opposed 
the Quakers, who elected the Assembly and controlled 
public affairs, and the German Mennonites, Dunkers, and 
Moravians, through whose support they were able to do it. 
In 1755 he published a political pamphlet in which he de- 
nounced the Quakers for being influenced by interest rather 
than conscience, and accused the Germans of sympathizing 
with the French in their aggressions. He married the 
daughter of William Moore, president judge of the Court 
of Common Pleas of Chester County, an aristocratic and 
influential personage, living on his estate at Moore Hall, on 
the Pickering Creek, twenty-five miles from the city. 

On the 23d of November, 1755, Moore, who, besides hold- 
ing his peaceful judicial office, was a colonel in the militia, 
wrote a letter to the Assembly, saying that he was coming 
down to Philadelphia with two thousand men to compel 
them to pass a law providing means for military protection. 
His letter marked the beginning of a struggle that shook the 
whole province and was fraught with baleful consequences 
to both Smith and the college. During the succeeding two 
years numerous petitions were presented to the Assembly, 
charging Moore with tyranny, injustice, and even extor- 
tion, in the conduct of his office, and asking that he might 
be removed. The Assembly, after a hearing, many times 
adjourned in order to give him an opportunity to be 
heard, but which he declined to attend upon the ground 
that they had no authority to make the investigation, deter- 



10 University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State. 

mined that he was guilty of the wrongs charged. Soon 
afterwards, October, 19, 1757, he wrote and published a 
paper wherein he fiercely reviewed their action, calling it 
*' virulent and scandalous," and a " continued string of the 
severest calumny and most venomous epithets, conceived in 
all the terms of malice and party rage." Immediately after 
the meeting of the new Assembly, composed for the most 
part of the same members as the preceding, they sent the 
sergeant-at-arms with a warrant for the arrest of Moore 
and of Dr. Smith, who was supposed to have aided in the 
preparation of the paper. Upon being brought before 
the Assembly, they refused to make a defence, though 
Moore admitted he had written the paper, and declined to 
retract any of its statements, and it was ordered that he be 
confined until he should recant, and the address be burned 
by the hangman. They were given into the custody of the 
sherifi*and were kept in jail in Philadelphia for about three 
months, "herding with common thieves and felons," but 
after the adjournment of the Assembly were released upon 
a writ of habeas corpus. Smith went to England to prose- 
cute an appeal to the crown, and on February 13, 1760, 
" His Majesty's high displeasure" was announced to the 
Assembly at their unwarrantable behavior in assuming 
power that did not belong to them, and invading the royal 
prerogative and the liberties of the people. It was a per- 
sonal triumph for Dr. Smith, but ere long came the Revolu- 
tionary War, when his opponents grasped the reins of power, 
and neither the royal government nor the king himself 
could render him any aid. 

Early in 1779 the Assembly appointed a committee " To 
inquire into the present state of the college and academy," 
and in July, General Joseph Reed, President of the State, 
suggested to the trustees that since some of them were 
under legal disqualifications, it would be wise not to hold a 
public commencement. When the new Assembly met, in 
September, the president in his message said, with reference 
to the college, that it " appears by its charter to have allied 
itself . . . closely to the government of Britain by making 



University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State, 11 

the allegiance of its governors to that State a prerequisite to 
any official act," and that he could not think " the good 
people of this State can or ought to rest satisfied or the 
protection of the government be extended to an institution 
framed with such attachments to the British government, 
and conducted with a general inattention to the authority 
of the State." A committee appointed to consider the sub- 
ject reported, recommending a bill which should " secure 
to every denomination of Christians equal privileges, and 
establish said college on a liberal foundation, in which the 
interests of American liberty and independence will be 
advanced and promoted, and obedience and respect to 
the constitution of the State preserved." An act of As- 
sembly was thereupon passed, November 27, 1779. It set 
out that the trustees had narrowed the foundations of the 
institution, and it declared the charters of 1753 and 1755 
void. It provided that the estate, real and personal, should 
be vested in a board of trustees, consisting of the presi- 
dent and vice-president of the Supreme Executive Coun- 
cil of the Commonwealth, the speaker of the Assembly, 
the chief-justice of the Supreme Court, the judge of Ad- 
miralty, and the attorney-general, the senior ministers of 
the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, German Cal- 
vinist, and Roman churches in the city, Benjamin Erank- 
lin, William Shippen, Frederick A. Muhlenberg, James 
Searle, William A. Atlee, John Evans, Timothy Matlack, 
David Rittenhouse, Jonathan Bayard Smith, Samuel Mor- 
ris, George Bryan, Thomas Bond, and James Hutchinson, 
by the name of " The Trustees of the University of the 
State of Pennsylvania," and directed that confiscated es- 
tates of the yearly value of not over fifteen hundred pounds 
should be reserved for the maintenance of the provost and 
assistants and to uphold ^' the charitable school of the said 
University." An oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth 
was substituted for the former one to the crown, and means 
were provided to compel a transfer of the property by the 
trustees of the college to the trustees appointed by the act. 
This action of the Assembly has been characterized as a 



12 University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State. 

simple act of spoliation, and so much of it as took away the 
estates and franchises of the college was repealed in 1789, 
upon the ground that it was " repugnant to justice, a viola- 
tion of the constitution of the Commonwealth, and danger- 
ous in its precedent to all incorporated bodies." Its sup- 
porters had succeeded in driving Dr. Smith away from the 
city, but they had not been able to infuse life into the new 
University, and, though aided by a loan by the State of two 
thousand pounds, it languished in debt. The effect of the 
repeal was to renew the college, and, in consequence, there 
were two institutions having in view substantially the same 
objects and seeking the same support. They were united 
by an act of Assembly of September 30, 1791, which pro- 
vided for the vesting of the estates of both in a board of 
new trustees, consisting of twelve elected by each, and the 
governor of the Commonwealth, under the name of " The 
Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania," who were 
given power " to do everything needful and necessary to 
the establishment of the said University and the good gov- 
ernment and education of the youth belonging to the same, 
and to constitute a faculty or learned body to consist of 
such head or heads and such a number of professors in the 
arts and sciences, and in law, medicine, and divinity as 
they shall judge necessary and proper." The connection 
of the institution with the State was maintained by pro- 
viding that the governor should be one of the trustees, and 
that an annual statement of the funds should be laid be- 
fore the Legislature. This final act of fundamental legisla- 
tion affecting the grant of rights to the University declared 
that " charity schools shall be supported, one for boys and 
the other for girls," thus preserving the chief thought 
which was in the minds of its originators in 1740. The 
school intended in its beginning to be a charity had been 
enlarged into a college and academy to teach the arts and 
sciences in 1753, and had now grown into a University, 
including in its course instruction in law, medicine, and 
divinity. 

The school of medicine was opened in 1765 by Dr. 



University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State. 3 3 

John Morgan, that of law in 1791 by Justice James Wil- 
son, and each was the first upon that special subject in 
America. 

The reservation of confiscated estates in the act of 1779 
was the first direct contribution made by the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania to the cause of higher education. 
The lands so reserved were estimated to be worth £25,000, 
and in 1785 their annual value was £1381 55. 7Jd By the 
act of March 19, 1807, the sum of $3000 was granted " out 
of the monies they owe the State," to the trustees, '^ for the 
purpose of enabling them to establish a garden for the im- 
provement of the science of botany and for instituting a 
series of experiments to ascertain the cheapest and best food 
for plants and their medicinal properties and virtues."^ By 
act of May 5, 1832, their real estate in the city of Philadel- 
phia was exempted from " county, poor, and corporation 
taxes" for fifteen years. A general act which became a 
law April 16, 1838, exempted " all universities, colleges, 
academies, incorporated, erected, ordained, or established 
by virtue of any law of this Commonwealth, with the 
grounds thereto annexed, from all and every county, road, 
city, borough, poor, and school tax." This act received 
judicial construction in the case of the City of Philadelphia 
vs. The Trustees, 8 Wright, 360, where it was held that 
the medical hall of the University, occupied by the faculty 
whose compensation was derived from the proceeds of their 
respective chairs, was under it exempt from taxation. Sec- 
tion 1, Article IX. of the present constitution of the State 
provides that the Assembly may by general law exempt 
from taxation " institutions 5f purely public charity," and 
the act of May 14, 1874, passed in pursuance of this article 
of the constitution, relieves from county, city, borough, 
bounty, road, school, and poor tax all universities, colleges, 
seminaries, and academies " endowed and maintained by 
public or private charity." 

^ In "W. P. C. Barton's " Compendium Florae Philadelphicae," pub- 
lished in 1818, there are numerous references to plants in the botanical 
garden of the University. 



029 927 221 T^ 



14 University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State. 

In 1838 the Legislature made provision for an annual ap- 
propriation of one thousand dollars for ten years to each 
university maintaining four professors and instructing one 
hundred students. The University of Pennsylvania re- 
ceived the annual sum until 1843. In that year the appro- 
priation was reduced one-half, and the following year it 
failed utterly. The act of May 11, 1871, extended the 
power of the trustees to acquire real and personal property, 
and enabled them to hold an additional amount to the clear 
annual value of thirty thousand dollars. In 1872 the State 
gave to the University the sum of one hundred thousand 
dollars upon condition that it should raise an additional 
sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, " the entire 
appropriation to be expended in the erection of a general 
hospital in connection with said institution, in which at least 
two hundred beds free for persons injured shall be forever 
maintained," and the following year a further sum of one 
hundred thousand dollars for the same purpose, upon the 
condition that it should raise a like amount. By the act of 
May 29, 1889, the State made an appropriation of twelve 
thousand 1^ve hundred dollars, to be paid to the trustees for 
the erection of a veterinary hospital, upon the condition that 
they should furnish free of cost " to deserving young men 
of this State to the number of not less than twelve in at- 
tendance at one time, said young men to be nominated by 
the governor of the Commonwealth, and in perpetuity, free 
instruction in the art and science of veterinary medicine 
and surgery." It is interesting to note that this last act of 
legislation affecting the welfare of the University is one of 
generosity upon the part of the State, looking towards en- 
larged usefulness in the conduct of the institution and the 
further extension of its benefits among the people of Penn- 
sylvania, and that the broad-minded and liberal policy 
adopted by Thomas Penn one hundred and forty years ago 
has been continued down to the present time. In the lan- 
guage of General John F. Ilartranft, himself a distinguished 
soldier, governor of the State, and president of the Board 
of Trustees, in an address at the inauguration of the hos- 



University of Pennsylvania in its Relations to the State. 15 

pital thus established, this policy is " in keeping with the 
generosity of the great State which gave this institution its 
corporate existence, and is to-day, and it is hoped always 
will be, proud of her offspring, the University of Pennsyl- 
vania." 

"When the impartial historian comes to record the many 
events in which Pennsylvania has reason to take great 
pride, not the least of them will be the fact that in her first 
constitution, that of 1776, she made it a part of the funda- 
mental law that " all useful learning shall be duly encour- 
aged and promoted in one or more universities." 



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029 927 221 7 



